After setting the Olympic record Thursday night, Manuel said she hopes to inspire little girls who want to swim, but are told it isn’t for them or they can’t do it.
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Her excitement is being matched at swimming pools around the country.
With Simone Biles all-but-perfect performance in the Rio Olympics, she’s cemented herself as arguably the greatest gymnast ever.
On Aug. 11 in Rio, Manuel finished the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 52:70. “But at the same time I would like there to be a day where there are more of us and it’s not Simone ‘the black swimmer, ‘” she told a news conference after her victory.
As Simone Biles was completing her routine at the women’s individual all-around final in Rio this week, a group of her relatives in Belize City were glued to the TV. “But I do hope that it kind of goes away”.
Nada Al-Bedwawi was also moved by Manuel’s historic swim.
“Using the word prodigy to describe her”, he says: “That is very accurate to what she is”.
This lack of diversity can be attributed to a combination of factors, including access to gyms and pools in predominantly black neighborhoods, the expense of participating in the sports, having no role models for young black athletes to look up to, and misconceptions that “blacks just don’t swim” or don’t get their hair wet or don’t have the right “body type” for gymnastics.
“She wants to be seen as an individual who just like everyone else has worked hard to be where she is”, Sharron Manuel said.
“It is something I’ve definitely struggled with a lot”, Manuel said. “Her older brother was part of our summer swim team and mom said ‘Well, if I’m going to be here anyway, she might as well take some lessons.'” Manuel was just three years old at the time.
“Swimming is 80 percent mental and 20 percent physical”, Adams said. “We are doing it in UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and hopefully Saudi Arabia will try to get there”.
A touch of a wall that’s already breaking down barriers in Montgomery. “At that moment she really realized she was OK with who she was”. But she aims to change that. Michael Phelps might have enough gold to open a jewelry store but the name “Michael” is unlikely to shift in usage much as a result. “Not the same training”.
She was fourth in her morning heat, but still advanced. But she would have been proud.
“I think it means a lot, especially what’s going on in the world today with some of the issues with police brutality”, she added. It’s something I carry with me. The title “black swimmer” makes it seem like I’m not supposed to be able to win a gold medal or I’m not supposed to break records.
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“I’m only 16 so it’s pretty insane to win a gold medal in your first Olympics”. “It is for some of the African Americans who have come before me”.
